Duets
by Ashton09
Summary: What started as a shower invasion turns into a repeat performance. Rated T to be safe


After Chloe cornered her in the shower, Beca seriously debated changing her shower time to an earlier hour. True, earlier usually means completely packed, but that might keep the redhead out of Beca's stall and in her own. Surely that's worth the inconvenience, right?

In the end Beca keeps the same shower schedule, late enough that some students are asleep, and early enough that the partiers are still out. It's just for the convenience, she tells herself. It obviously has nothing to do with the strange pang of disappointment that had accompanied the thought of missing a potential repeat. She just didn't want to deal with crowds, or lines, or waiting around for an empty stall.

It has nothing to do with bright blue eyes, or surprisingly effortless harmonies, or abs that Beca is pretending she didn't glance at a few times more than would be considered appropriate to anyone but Chloe. Nothing at all. And as a week passes with no sign of the redhead outside of Bella rehearsals, Beca actually begins to believe that rationalization. She's got her shower schedule down, usually lucky enough to be the only one using them, or at least mostly alone, the way she prefers it.

Of course, the solitude doesn't last, and the rationalization fades about ten seconds into her next shower duet. This one is thankfully from a separate stall, with curtains firmly closed between them. Thankfully, because Beca knows from the first note that she's gone, but that's not how she works, damn it. She doesn't fall for people, especially someone who she's only talked to maybe ten times, and only twice outside of group settings.

So despite the rush of emotions that Beca doesn't even know how to _name_ let alone categorize or deal with, she's ridiculously grateful for the thin sheets of plastic that at least this time keep the redhead out of her stall. They do nothing to block the sound of Chloe's voice though, and Beca closes her eyes for a moment to let the gentle soprano wash over her before she joins in, taking the lower register and counterpoint to Chloe's melody.

She hears the other woman's voice hitch as she joins in, and braces herself almost unconsciously for the song to end, ready to jump for a towel if her shower stall is invaded again. But instead Chloe's voice strengthens, sounding more like a performance voice than one fit for a shower, and Beca can't help but put more power into her own voice to match. She just hopes the showers are as deserted as they were when she arrived, because surely there's something weird about this, and she's not ready to face strange looks from anyone. She already can't believe she's willingly harmonizing with someone in a communal shower area, the last thing she needs is an audience.

Especially when she's willingly harmonizing to 90's boy band songs, Chloe's vocal magnetism completely overriding every sense of musical dignity Beca has clung to her entire life. Because yes, everyone knows the lyrics to "I Want it That Way", but that doesn't mean she actually _likes_ the song, no matter how long it stays stuck in her head any time she hears it. Just because it's catchy and was a large part of her generation's formative culture doesn't mean it's a song she'd ever choose to sing on her own.

Somehow though, singing it with Chloe makes it one of her favorite songs, and she just knows she's never getting it out of her head. Then the song ends, and Beca's nerves hit her. Because that sounded awesome, but she did kind of burst in on Chloe's shower solo, without the redhead even knowing she's there. And even if Chloe did the same thing to her, that doesn't mean she'll be okay with Beca doing the same.

And this is the first time in the past week that their shower schedules have overlapped, or at least the first time they've sung together since Chloe burst into her shower demanding she sing. Beca doesn't know if the other woman would have joined in on her singing if their positions had been reversed, but nothing she's learned since audition day makes that thought seem too farfetched.

"You scared me!" comes the eventual reaction, and Beca would be worried at the words if she couldn't hear the laughter beneath them. And if she wasn't busy feeling insanely awkward about having a conversation while in the shower.

"Says the woman who barged nude into my shower to scare me into auditioning" she calls back after a moment, hearing an actual laugh from whatever stall Chloe is in. "Besides, this is my shower time, not yours."

"And the fact that I've now been here twice while you're here means what then?" Other than the fact that they're calling to each other across a hopefully empty dorm shower, Beca thinks this might be the most normal conversation she's had with Chloe so far.

"Either that you're following me, or that you occasionally shower at this time. Meanwhile, this is my default shower time and I've been here ever night, so obviously I win." Beca winces as she calls that one across the shower, she really should work on her competitive streak, or at least try to keep it held back for times when it's actually needed

"Please, I have a late class on Mondays, so I'm here later than I usually am the rest of the week. Now that I know you're here every night though, I may have to join you more often." That was so not what Beca meant to happen, so not where she meant for this conversation to go. In fact, she's pretty sure her brain is short-circuiting from the imagery she's conjuring up, because even if she knows that's not what Chloe means they _are_ both currently nude and in the shower.

"What, you don't see enough of me at Bella's rehearsals?" And damn it, that's not what she meant to say either, because if even she can see the potential innuendo in that statement, then surely there is no way Chloe will miss it. And a woman who ignores popular ideas of common decency to the point she has no qualms about barging into a shower isn't likely to pass up an opportunity like that.

"Oh, hardly enough. Can't even see your tattoos at rehearsal, let alone really hear your voice. I didn't get a chance to read the lyrics on your back last time. It looked pretty captivating" While nowhere near as bad as Beca had worried, Beca still flushes at the teasing tone of Chloe's voice.

While Beca's busy trying to get her brain to start working again, she hears someone come into the room, and scrambles to finish her shower because there's no way she wants someone to overhear this conversation and start making assumptions. Surprisingly, Chloe doesn't push for a response, and Beca wonders if the outgoing woman is possibly as embarrassed at the thought of an audience as she is.

That thought is promptly dashed when she pulls the shower curtain aside and yelps in surprise at the sight of Chloe waiting for her, towel outstretched. "Dude! You have got to stop doing that!" Despite the urge to yell, it comes out a loud whisper, Beca still not wanting their elusive shower companion to hear.

"Please, like I haven't seen it before. Besides, you should totes be as confident about all that as I am about all this." Chloe doesn't bother to keep her voice down in the slightest, and Beca is almost certain she's going to die from embarrassment right then and there. Only the knowledge that someone would then have to pull her nude body from the shower gives her the strength to grab the towel and pull it around herself. At least this time Chloe also has a towel, Beca tries to convince herself, steadfastly ignoring the pang of regret, because that is so not an appropriate reaction to be having right now.

"That… that is not the point!" Beca tries to explain, wrapping the towel tighter around herself as she looks around to check for an audience. "Some people don't appreciate other people startling them while nude, you know."

"Oh" Chloe looks like that thought honestly had never occurred to her before. "So, if I announce myself then we're good, right?" And Beca had known the older woman was outgoing after the activities fair, but she honestly had not expected her to be so obvious in her teasing. Chloe is smirking at her, blatantly staring as she runs her eyes up and down Beca's barely towel covered body before meeting her eyes with a wink.

And something about the way Chloe's looking at her steals every coherent thought from Beca's mind, leaving her stuck gaping. Apparently Chloe reads it as pure embarrassment, because after a moment the teasing grin drops from her face, and she's rushing to apologize.

"Oh, Beca, I'm just teasing you! Well, mostly anyway. You really do have every reason to be confident. But I mean, I guess I can quit barging into your shower time. Even if _you_ started singing with _me_ this time." She's smirking again, but there's also a note of sincerity in the way she'd all but promised to quiet surprising Beca in the shower, and Beca can't help but respond to that sincerity with some of her own.

"I kinda couldn't help it, dude. You've got this crazy awesome voice, and we harmonize so easily, and everyone knows the words to that song. And it was just really nice to sing with you, outside of Bella's rehearsals." And okay, so Beca is pretty bad at this opening up stuff, especially when Chloe smiles and her stomach fills with butterflies, because apparently her life isn't weird enough and she gets to add stupid clichés to the list.

And Chloe is really smiling now, any trace of a smirk gone, and she's leaning in as if to hug Beca. And Beca just knows will result in the death she's been pushing off by sheer force of will. But instead, she just winks and finally lowers her voice to a whisper. "Well then, see you next Monday" is all she says before walking off with a final smile, leaving Beca standing at the edge of her stall staring after her, still clutching her towel to her chest.

She's not sure Monday can come fast enough.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Eventually Monday does come, and they sing through several songs before they're both finished with their individual shower routines. Beca thinks that there's probably something strange about scheduling shower duets, but lets it go without thinking too much about it.

Beca gets better at matching harmonies to Chloe's melodies each week, and Chloe starts picking songs that let them really build the balance between their voices. They start gradually spending time with each other after their duets, at Beca's insistence while fully clothed. They spend time going out for coffee or grabbing a late dinner before parting ways to study or crash for an early class.

Chloe starts joining Beca's shower times on Thursdays as well, and soon they're hanging out all through the week when they both have free time. By the time Regionals roll around, Chloe has managed to switch her shower schedule around so she's showering at the same time as Beca every night.

Beca still wonders occasionally if the entire situation is completely insane, but when Chloe nearly tackles her rushing into her stall after Beca tries a mix instead of harmonizing for the first time, she forgets to care. She isn't even bothered that Chloe has forgotten to grab a towel for the first time since Beca had mentioned the whole nude comfort thing.

She's even gotten over feeling nervous when someone else is in the room, though Chloe had teased her the first few times she'd lost the beat or dropped out of a song altogether. It wasn't that Beca was nervous about performing for an audience, really. Not after Aubrey's performance boot camp leading up to Regionals.

No, it was more a reluctance to share what she and Chloe were building when they sang. It wasn't just music to Beca anymore, and she didn't think it was to Chloe either. Beca knows she's picking the songs she leads with deliberately, and suspects Chloe has started doing the same. Their music has turned into the flirting Beca isn't sure enough of herself to start outside of their performances, and she thinks Chloe understands that. At least she thinks she does, after Beca had stammered out a few half excuses and refused to meet her eyes when Chloe had been teasing her.

Now though, she just keeps matching songs or harmony with Chloe no matter how many people she hears outside their stalls. It doesn't matter to her who might be listening, as long as Chloe is there, singing with her.

XXXXXXXXXXX

They're still working on the same old set after Regionals, and the new Bellas are grumbling. They love performing; love being Bellas, but there isn't a single girl that doesn't spend every practice wishing they were doing something else, and usually dreaming up ways to convince Aubrey to do anything else.

So when Stacie ends up showering at the same time as Beca and Chloe after an early exit from a frat party, her first thought at hearing the mashup is to somehow get the other Bellas, especially Aubrey, in the showers to listen. But before she can grab her phone for a mass text, the song ends and she hears water shut off, and her friends laughing.

"I can't believe you made me think of a song to mix with Miley Cyrus" she hears Beca complain.

"You could always have joined in!" comes the cheerful response from Chloe, and she can hear the older woman trying not to laugh.

"Ugh, you guys got me to do that _once_ , it's not going to happen again."

"You say that now, but I bet tomorrow I can get you singing along."

"You can try, but it's not going to work. I've got a full 24 hours to plan my lead off song; it's your turn to match."

The voices fade as the two women leave the room, and Stacie's brain jumps into high gear. Now that she's not in a rush, she doesn't think she can get Aubrey here on her own and she's not sure she can convince the other Bella's to help her with just her descriptions of the mix. But maybe she can get enough of them her tomorrow night to convince them to help her all but kidnap Aubrey. Surely their captain will have to admit that mixing songs together can sound amazing if she hears anything like that shower duet.

Grabbing her phone, Stacie thinks for a second, then quickly sends out a mass text to the other new Bellas, setting up stage one of the plan to get Aubrey to cave.

They all show up early the next night, not wanting Beca or Chloe to see the and figure out that they're up to something. Stacie hadn't had to work very hard to convince most of them to show up, only Fat Amy had taken more than five minutes to convince, and Cynthia Rose had been in from the word "shower".

Stacie explains a little of her plan while they wait hidden in two stalls at the end of the aisle, but mostly insists they wait and listen for themselves. Thankfully she's at least managed to convince them to stay quiet so no one realizes there is a group of girls hiding in a communal shower, and when they hear Beca's voice start ringing out, even the whispered conversations cease.

Somehow the shower acoustics pair amazingly well with the alto's voice as it takes lead in a way they haven't really heard before, "Wonderwall" filling the room as she sings. From the looks on the faces of the girls hiding in Stacie's stall, this show on its own is enough reason to have dragged them here. Then Chloe comes in with "I Want it That Way", slipping it into Beca's melody so seamlessly that Stacie hears a few of the girls muffle gasps of surprise, and she knows she has them convinced.

They hide through a few more songs, both mixes and simple harmonizing, before silence falls and water shuts off. "I can't believe you picked that song for the first mix!" they hear Beca laugh, and several Bellas nearly gasp again at how legitimately _happy_ Beca sounds.

"It fit, didn't it?" they hear Chloe retort with a laugh of her own.

"Well yeah, you usually manage to make it work, but why do you keep using it? Have you gone a week without singing it?" Now the Bellas are trading questioning looks, because obviously this has been going on for a while, but how long is that exactly?

"I like it! It's the song _you_ joined _me_ on. It's aca-awesome."

"Yeah, yeah. You still sing it too much. Now hurry up, you owe me a coffee after you spilled mine this afternoon."

The Bellas stay hidden for a few minutes more as they listen to the voices fade, and then cautiously peek around the edge of the stalls to make sure the coast is clear. Cynthia Rose is the first to speak. "We have _got_ to get Aubrey here." The others just nod, and Stacie smiles in satisfaction.

"I have just the plan we need."

They meet up in Lilly's dorm, the freshman somehow having the room to herself. It looks surprisingly normal, but Stacie notices a few of the girls hesitate to sit down. "Okay, the plan is simple. Fat Amy, you tell Aubrey that you saw Beca and Jesse making out behind the dorm building. When she freaks, offer to lead her there. Once she's there, we grab her, get her to the shower, and make her listen. Simple and brilliant." Looking around, Stacie is surprised to see only Lilly and Fat Amy seem excited by her plan. "What? It's a good plan!" she says defensively.

"Your plan… is for us to kidnap her?" Jessica asks from where she's sitting on the edge of the spare bed, looking almost ready to bolt from the room any second. Several of the other girls look like they might join her if she does, so Stacie quickly sets out to reassure them.

"Only like a little bit! Someone will keep watch, and we just have to figure out a way to keep her from making too much noise and scaring Beca and Chloe. Then once she's head them sing, she'll totally realize our current set is boring, and things will get changed no problem. It's foolproof." They don't look convinced, and Stacie turns to Fat Amy with a sigh. "What do you think?" she asks, desperate for some backup.

"Well, we've got to get our blonde leader into that shower any way possible, and this seems easier than setting a pack of wild dogs on her and hoping they chase her the right way. Plus, I'm looking forward to the look on Aubrey's face when I tell her Beca is totally pitching around with the Treble." The other laugh a little at that, and suddenly it doesn't seem as strange.

"Okay, so all we have to do is get all the details planned for who does what. Now, I was thinking we'd have Denise on lookout duty" Stacie starts, as they settle in for a night of planning.

XXXXXXXXXX

Stacie is waiting anxiously in the entrance to the dorms, looking at her watch and then around the campus as she waits for Aubrey to show up. They won't be able to use this plan a second time, and if Aubrey goes after Beca because of them, they might not have a chance to come up with a second plan. This has to work. Looking back inside the dorm building, she gets a nod from Jessica that the coast is still clear, and a raised phone that means things are still clear on Denise's end as well. So far, so good. Now if Aubrey would just show up…

As if conjured by the wish, Stacie hears rapid footfalls heading towards the building, and spots Aubrey all but running in their direction with Fat Amy struggling a little to keep up. Just on time and maybe this will all be easier than she thought.

Just as they'd planned, as soon as Fat Amy and Aubrey reach the doors, Cynthia Rose helps Fat Amy grab their captain, as Stacie steps forward with an apologetic smile and a scarf. As the rest of the Bellas keep an eye out for anyone who might be around to witness what they all have to admit looks like a very bad situation, Stacie quickly ties the scarf over Aubrey's mouth.

"Sorry Aubrey! We just really need for you to listen to something, and there was no way you were going to listen to us try to convince you. But yeah, we're on a time crunch and we'll totally explain this later!" And Stacie thinks Aubrey must be in a state of shock, because she doesn't try to kick her or do anything else as the Bellas gather around to shield her from view as they walk inside.

They manage to get Aubrey to the dorm shower faster than Stacie had thought they could pull off, and the group enters as quietly as they can to find Beca and Chloe are already harmonizing. At the sound of the voices blending, Aubrey's eyes narrow and she shakes her head at Stacie in what the woman thinks is supposed to be a menacing fashion. But Stacie just shushes her, hoping the next song is a mix rather than a simple melody and counterpoint.

And fate smiles on them again, as Chloe starts in with "Just the Way You Are" and Beca doesn't immediately join in. The new Bellas know from the night before that a pause means one of them is planning a mashup and will join in once they have it, and grin at each other in anticipation. And when Beca joins in with "Just a Dream", Aubrey's face slackens with what Stacie thinks is a bit of shock, and it's all she can do to keep from joining the mashup with a little background harmony.

When she sees a few of the others looking like they're counting, she holds a finger to her lips, reminding them to keep quiet and not break the spell. Aubrey needs to hear the simplicity and beauty of two voices blending two different songs together, creating something amazing without sacrificing the purity of a capella music's true nature. If she's still not convinced, then they can add in background vocals later. Assuming Aubrey doesn't have them all charged with kidnapping, but Stacie doesn't think that's likely as long as they let her go right away.

Before she can worry about it too much, the song ends, and Aubrey starts glaring at them all again, pulling against where Fat Amy and Cynthia Rose have her arms pinned. She's about to motion for the Bellas to pull their captain out of the room so they can talk about it, when the water shuts off in the stall in front of them, and a shower curtain is pulled back to reveal not one woman, but both of the performers they'd been listening too.

Both women are starting to blush as they take in the sight of their teammates standing in front of them staring in shock. Stacie isn't even sure they've noticed that Aubrey is gagged, and she's suddenly realizing that she didn't think this part of her plan through too well. She'd assumed they could slip out of the showers before the two finished. And even if they hadn't been able to slip away, she hadn't expected only a single stall to be in use. And from the looks on the other Bella's faces, she wasn't alone in that.

"Um, what are you guys doing here?" Chloe finally asks, holding her towel up with one hand while the other reaches for Beca's hand.

"We thought Aubrey should hear you two and your mashups?" Stacie answers hesitantly, knowing it sounds more like a question than an actual answer. And that's when she sees Chloe notice her friend, and if the redhead was surprised before, she's full on shocked now. And now that Stacie thinks about it, there's really no reason for Aubrey to still be gagged, so with what she hopes is an apologetic smile, she quickly unties the scarf and motions for Fat Amy and Cynthia Rose to drop her arms.

Thankfully the blonde doesn't start swinging punches, though Stacie sees Jessica and Ashley take steps towards the door as she's let go. She supposes she can't really blame them, even if she knows they won't be Aubrey's first targets.

"Chloe" the blonde says after a moment, staring at her friend in shock. "Are you seriously dating Beca?" And okay, that's not where any of them really expected this to go first, but Stacie has to admit she's curious too, and Cynthia Rose is staring at the two towel clad women like she's afraid she's dreaming this up, so maybe it's better to get this part out of the way first.

"Well… we hadn't really decided that part?" Chloe responds, turning to look at the woman standing next to her, who looks like she's wishing she was anywhere but here. The sound of hesitation in Chloe's voice seems to get through to her though, and Stacie sees her hand tighten on Chloe's in reassurance.

"We hadn't talked about it, but if Chloe wants to be, then yeah, we're dating." Beca says with less hesitation than Chloe had shown. And it's obvious from Chloe's smile what her answer to that question would be, the redhead tugging on Beca's hand to pull her closer and put her arm around her shoulders.

"Well then yeah, I guess we are dating, Bree. Though most of our dates have been shower dates, really." Chloe doesn't seem to realize how that sounds, but everyone else reacts, from Beca blushing profusely to Aubrey looking vaguely green.

"I didn't need to know details!" she gasps out as the girls closest to her take a step out of the way to avoid any potential vomit. "I just didn't know why you didn't tell me."

"Oh! No, I didn't mean like that, Aubrey! Beca's too scared one of us will fall and hit our heads. I just meant the singing." And Stacie's not sure that really helped, because Beca is staring at the ceiling and blushing harder than Stacie thought someone could, and everyone else is taking another step back from Aubrey just in case.

And as much as Stacie wants to know the history behind Beca and Chloe getting together, because she really hadn't seen it coming, that's definitely not why they came tonight. And as vaguely dangerous as it seems, someone needs to bring up that real reason, and since it was her plan, it probably should be her.

"As much as I'm always for sex in a shower or otherwise, we didn't really pull Aubrey down here to out you guys. Sorry about that by the way. We actually wanted her to hear your mixes." And Aubrey is back to glaring, but Stacie forces herself to stand her ground, not willing to give in without a fight. Because Beca and Chloe sound like they could beat the rest of the Bellas just by themselves with that last mashup, and Stacie knows that if they add the other eight Bellas to a mix like that, there isn't a team in the world that could touch them.

Aubrey holds her glare for a minute, before looking around at the other women who are looking at her with expressions ranging from fearful to hopeful and every mix in between. It suddenly seems to dawn on her that seven girls were so desperate for her to hear this that they legitimately dragged her down, hoping she would see the change they all wanted.

And when Aubrey meets Chloe's eyes, Stacie knows they've won. Because there's no glare directed at her friend, just a resigned sort of acceptance. And Chloe just nods, pulling Beca tighter to her side as she smiles at her best friend.

"Okay Bellas, you've made your point" Aubrey finally sighs. "We'll use practice tomorrow for a brainstorming session to come up with a new setlist." The new Bellas starts cheering, slapping hands and congratulating each other. "After you all do twice the cardio" she says once the cheers die down, only to earn a round of groans in response.

"That's great and all, but can the rest of us shower in peace?" comes a shout from somewhere in the showers, and after a second of staring at each other in surprise, the Bellas new and old start cracking up.


End file.
